The invention relates generally to vertical missile launchers. In particular, the invention relates to road-mobile launchers for surface-to-air intercept missiles.
Vertical missile launchers have conventionally been deployed aboard warships, such as cruisers and destroyers to replace rail launchers. Originally developed for anti-submarine warfare (e.g., ASROC, RUM-139), vertical launchers were subsequently deployed for other missiles for guidance using shipboard radar, such as Aegis. Missiles to be incorporated in ship-board vertical launcher arrays include Tomahawk (BGM-109) and Standard Missile. Of the latter, the SM-2 (RIM-67) and SM-3 (RIM-161) versions are used for surface-to-air interception of either hostile aircraft or ballistic warheads.
Conventional tactical surface-to-air missiles for are deployable on exposed ground-based launch stands. However, these involve deployment of several platforms for target detection, tracking, guidance and control.